Commerce Figure Says Iran’s Regime Suffers From Regional Isolation

Written by Amir Taghati on 23 November 2018.

By Amir Taghati

Majid Reza Hariri, the deputy chair of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce stated in a recent interview with the state-run ILNA news agency, “To say we have 15 neighbors is similar to giving medicine to a dead man.” He explained, “We must take into consideration this question of how many neighbors we actually have good relations with?

We have no relations with the Persian Gulf countries; Turkmenistan has banned us from using its airspace; Azerbaijan has issues for our support of Armenia regarding the Gharre Baq matter. Therefore, when we claim there’s a market of 400 million people around us, we must not forget we have problems with 70 to 80 percent of this population… The first condition in trade is to establish decent relations. However, we don’t have good relations with our neighbors, especially rich countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.”

In short, Hariri claimed that the Iranian regime lacks good relations with any of its 15 neighbors. He also highlighted a small portion of the Iranian regime’s destructive economic policies. “We must realize that many of the world’s major cities, such as Hamburg, San Francisco and New York are located near free waters. However, in our country, the port cities are amongst our poor areas and 90 percent of the areas from Abadan (southwest Iran) to Chabahar (southeast Iran) are poor,” he said, and added, “We have launched a number of factories in the central parts of the country that have resulted in nothing but destroying the environment and wasting our water sources.”

The Iran-China Chamber of Commerce is headed by Asadollah Asgaroladi, a known affiliate of the regime’s leaders.

Iran’s Majlis (parliament), in an open-door session last September discussed the country’s economy and poor living condition of ordinary Iranians. Majlis member Mohsen Bigleri, declared, “To those government officials who are trying comfort themselves with unreal statistics, our workers and employees, young and old, are all living in conditions with inflation reaching 60 or 70 percent.” Bigleri added, “Mr. Rouhani, we have five million unemployed people and most of them are college educated, and yet they’re struggling to procure their next meal… The prices of people’s basic necessities, such as meat, poultry, dried goods and fruits have increased more than 70 percent…”

Another member of the Majlis, Sedif Badri, expressed her concerns about the inflation and skyrocketing prices. “The government’s weak and indefensible economic practices… unbridled inflation increase and skyrocketing prices, are imposing pressures on the lower class of our society and has completely disappointed our middle class… the people are truly being crushed under these conditions…”

A member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Affairs Commission, Alaedin Borujerdi, cited foul practices in Iran’s petrochemical industry. “The petrochemical industry presents its own products in the stock market. Informed dealers purchase the products instantly… and these products are then sold to needy factories at extremely higher prices. The factories are forced to either not purchase the raw material or as a result increase the prices of their own goods to an extreme extent. This results in inflation; people lack purchasing power and finally workers are fired from factories,” he explained.

Majlis member, Hossein-Ali Shahriari said, “Are you aware that people have no income? Are you aware that the people’s drinking water has serious problems? Are you informed that people are leaving their ancestral homes and resorting to living in city slums…? What crime have these people committed to be punished like this?”

And Majlis member, Gholamreza Sharafi, described the way social issues in Iran are evolving into security matters. “People in parts of Abadan (in southwest Iran) haven’t had decent drinking water for 17 years… These innocent people rarely see a blue sky due to air contamination. These people have the sea, yet non-standard laws have made fishing difficult for them. These people once had the best dates production in the region. Today, however, their share of agriculture water is stolen and they are witnessing their date trees being destroyed,” he said. “4.3 million date trees have been lost.”

This is only a small part of the corruption, mismanagement, and crimes that Iranian regime officials are believed to be perpetrating. Yet, European countries continue to seek appeasement deals with this regime.

The Iranian people seeking to bringing an end to this regime with the help of the resistance units associated to the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK). Perhaps this regime’s days are coming to an end, so companies continuing to do business with Iran should find a better plan.